Springhills is a locality in the central Southland region of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

. Situated in a gap between Forest Hill and the Hokonui Hills

Hokonui Hills

The Hokonui Hills, also known as The Hokonui Mountains or simply The Hokonui, are a range of hills in northern Southland, New Zealand. They rise to 600 metres above the surrounding Southland Plains, of which the hills mark a northern extremity....

, it is located on State Highway 96

New Zealand State Highway 96

State Highway 96 is a New Zealand State Highway connecting the Southland communities of Mataura, Winton, and Ohai. Starting at State Highway 1 the highway is 92 kilometers in length and runs in a general east-west direction. In Winton State Highway 96 runs concurrently with State Highway 6 for 1.6...

 29 kilometres west of State Highway 1 near Mataura

Mataura

Mataura is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. Mataura has a meat processing plant, and until 2000 it was the site of a large pulp and paper mill....

 and 15 kilometres east of State Highway 6

New Zealand State Highway 6

State Highway 6 is a major New Zealand State Highway. It extends from the northeastern corner of the South Island across the top of the island, then down the length of the island, initially along the West Coast and then across the Southern Alps through inland Otago and finally across the Southland...

 at Winton

Winton, New Zealand

Winton is a town in Southland, New Zealand. It is located close to the east bank of the Oreti River, 30 kilometres north of Invercargill and 50 kilometres south of Lumsden. It is named after Thomas Winton, a local stockman who lived in the area in the 1850s...

.

From 1899 until 1953, Springhills was also served by a branch line

Branch line

A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...

 railway. The railway grew from a private bush tramway built in 1883 that ran from a junction with the Kingston Branch in Winton into the Browns Gap area. In the 1890s, the tramway was upgraded to railway standards, extended to Hedgehope, and handed over to the New Zealand Railways Department

New Zealand Railways Department

The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...

. This line was known as the Hedgehope Branch and it opened on 17 July 1899 with a station near Springhills known as Springhills Siding. Passenger services ceased on 9 February 1931, and due to declining freight tonnages, the Browns

Browns, New Zealand

Browns is a locality in central Southland in New Zealand's South Island. It is just to the east of the town of Winton in the southwestern reaches of the Hokonui Hills. State Highway 96 passes through the town on its route between Winton and Springhills....

-Hedgehope

Hedgehope, New Zealand

Hedgehope is a locality in the central Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. Located in the Hokonui Hills, Winton is to the west, Mataura to the east, and Mabel Bush to the south .The nearest city is Invercargill, over 25 km to the southwest...

 section that passed through Springhills was closed on 24 December 1953. Little evidence remains of Springhills' railway heritage, though the former line's formation

Track bed

A track bed or trackbed is the term used to describe the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links....

can sometimes be discerned.